Sometime this past August, I was approached by the MTV World Design Studio in Buenos Aires to create a "gig-poster style" print ad for their 2011 European Music Awards, which will feature a live performance by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now, as a late 80's skate rat, I grew up on the Chili Peppers, picking up the Uplift Mofo Party Plan on cassette after watching them live via VHS at the Vision Skate Escape, and even though I haven't really followed the group over the past few years, I was still stoked to work on something for the band.

MTV provided a specific reference photo for the illustration, as well as the EMA logo, a style guide and three specific colors that needed to be used (the pink, purple and dark purple that you see in the poster, which, as you might imagine, proved a little difficult to work with.) After a few rounds of back and forth, what you see to your left is what we came up with.

Internally the folks at MTV Design dug it, but higher-ups in the company decided to go a totally different direction, preferring to use a photo of the soon-to-be-announced host instead. A bummer for sure but what can you do.

So, instead of leaving this to languish in some digital graveyard, I decided to post it here for your enjoyment. Like Kurtis Blow said, these are the breaks.